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Detritus -- cleaning up XP PDF Print E-mail
Written by sa   
Monday, 19 February 2007
Detritus™
Detritus is a package that will make your windows drive cleaner, and your system (and you) happier.
 

Many programs leave files around that are no longer of use, cache files, temporary files, others.  Microsoft methods are particularly prone to this error in implementation.

When you combine that with the fact that the major performance killer on XP and most Windows is  overly full disks, cleaning out those useless files can be a real performance enhancer.

 How much can really cleaning out your drive save?  After a run of Microsoft's DIsk Cleanup, an XP system can easily get rid of roughly 800 meg of useless files, and sometimes far, far more.

 


The Detritus Package has Detritus.exe, which looks for all those useless files, and several utilities to help you manage your drive better, e.g. DelCache, which empties cache directories of files, even ones that Microsoft forgets about and that can kludge up your drive (and waste your time).

 

 


Detritus:

 

  • Detritus − Detritus reports on useless files on a Windows System.  This lets you know if you would profit from better useless file management.

  • Delcache − Delcache empties cache directories on all drives.

  • Deltemps − Deltemps deletes all the tmp, bak, wrk, and $$$ files on all drives.

  • Bigfiles − Bigfiles lists the largest files, from a system, drive, or path.  Bigfiles can look at patterns as well, e.g. *.mov

  • Types − Types lists the total size for all types of files.  If you wish to know how much space is taken with MOV files, or AVI files,, types will show you.

 


An example Detritus report, from a very clean XP follows.


 

02/19/07                          Files in Cache Directories                          
     Cache directories store just-used files in case you need them again.     
           Sometimes cache directories are not cleaned of old stuff.          
           Older flies and ones you don't need are not very use ful.           
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
    53,248   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Application Data\Microsoft\CryptnetUrlCache\Content\

    12,288   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Application Data\Microsoft\CryptnetUrlCache\MetaData\

     4,096   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache\FVCJQOSO\

     4,096   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache\KVRE100Y\

     4,096   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache\M3P0EW09\

     4,096   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Feeds Cache\W771PUCP\

 1,114,112   I:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\SFPCA Cache\

     81.78 M I:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\

    12,288   I:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\Config\Cache\

 2,183,168   I:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\OfflineCache\Personal_32#0409\

____________
       85.18 M Total for cache
02/19/07                           Files in I386 Directories                          
..\\Windows\\Driver Cache\\i386 has some drivers in it that allow you to install
 hardware without prompting for the CD. How often to you install new hardware?
 How hard is it to put in a CD? How long does it take our A-V to scan 81 Meg? 
      Leaving 82 Meg around for infrequent use is an odd design decision.     
            Anyway, it is not a cache, it is just a bin of drivers.           
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
     4,096   I:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_07\lib\i386\

     81.78 M I:\WINDOWS\Driver Cache\i386\

    36,864   I:\WINDOWS\system32\ReinstallBackups\0025\DriverFiles\i386\

____________
       81.83 M Total for i386
02/19/07                         Files in Inetlog Directories                         
    InetLogs are logs of your internet travels.  Unless you go to only one    
       or two sites.  Most of these are useless except for checking on        
         your use of illicit sites.  We do that on the server anyway.         
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
 3,878,912   I:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\

____________
   3,878,912   Total for inetlog
02/19/07                            Files in Logs Directories                          
      Logs are of all sorts of things.  The ones about errors are useful.     
     With a little luck they will show you hardware or software problems.     
     If you are not having problems are log files more than a meg needed?     
                                More than 50K?                                
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
     8,192   I:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\.clamwin\log\

____________
       8,192   Total for logs
02/19/07                         Files in Prefetch Directories                        
Unknown type prefetch
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
 2,891,776   I:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\

____________
   2,891,776   Total for prefetch
02/19/07                         Files in Sysrest Directories                         
Unknown type sysrest
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
    20,480   I:\System Volume Information\

____________
      20,480   Total for sysrest
02/19/07                           Files in Temp Directories                          
   Temp files ought to have been deleted when the creating program was done   
 with their temporary use.  If MS weere not immune to embarassment, they would
              blush as even one of these files shows sloppy work.             
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
 3,588,096   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\
     8,192   ..\svlc.tmp\

     4,096   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
    53,248   ..\Content.IE5\
   638,976   ..\Content.IE5\0T2BSTY3\
   245,760   ..\Content.IE5\8XIB012Z\
&nbsp ;  167,936   ..\Content.IE5\G5YNG1AB\
   221,184   ..\Content.IE5\OHUNCXU7\

     4,096   I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
    36,864   ..\Content.IE5\
     4,096   ..\Content.IE5\6YW01EIM\
     4,096   ..\Content.IE5\7ZU7BLAH\
     4,096   ..\Content.IE5\BRGWXD2F\
     4,096   ..\Content.IE5\L75X7Z3G\

    90,112   I:\WINDOWS\temp\

____________
   5,074,944   Total for temp
02/19/07                      Files with the ext (suffix) of bak                      
     BAK files, are backup and restore files for any application.  If the     
      application or program has finished you may consider removing these     
                        if you do not want the backup.                        
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
    20,480  I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\g9jeqlbu.default\bookmarks.bak
    12,288  I:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\Config\Cache\Personal_32_1033.dat.bak
   110,592  I:\WINDOWS\system32\NtmsData\NTMSDATA.BAK
   110,592   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\g9jeqlbu.default\

____________
     253,952   Total for files named *.bak
02/19/07                      Files with the ext (suffix) of dmp                      
    Dmp files are supposed to go into the Windows directory, and even there   
    it is usually a waste of time to save them, unless, of course, you are    
                      pursuing an issue with a publisher.                     
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
     8,192  I:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\user.dmp
     8,192  I:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\user.dmp
     8,192   I:\Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\

____________
      24,576   Total for files named *.dmp
02/19/07                      Files with the ext (suffix) of log             & nbsp;        
     Log files can show up anywhere, no only in log directories. These log    
     can likely be trimmed with no harm, or deleted, particularly after a     
                                    reboot.                                   
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
   139,264  I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\ntuser.dat.LOG
     8,192  I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat.LOG
     4,096  I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\vminst.log
    20,480  I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000\ntuser.dat.LOG
     8,192  I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat.LOG
    20,480  I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY.000\ntuser.dat.LOG
     8,192  I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY.000\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat.LOG
    20,480  I:\System Volume Information\tracking.log
         0  I:\WINDOWS\0.log
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\WindowsUpdate.log
         0  I:\WINDOWS\Debug\PASSWD.LOG
   450,560  I:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\tvDebug.log
    36,864  I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\DEFAULT.LOG
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SAM.LOG
    20,480  I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SECURITY.LOG
    49,152  I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SOFTWARE.LOG
 1,712,128  I:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM.LOG
     8,192  I:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\wbemess.log
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\wbemprox.log
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Logs\wmiprov.log
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\temp\vmware-vmount-1.log
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\temp\vmware-vmount-2.log
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\temp\vmware-vmount-3.log
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\temp\vmware-vmount.log
     4,096   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\
____________
   2,543,616   Total for files named *.log
02/19/07                      Files with the ext (suffix) of tmp                      
          Temp directories store files used temporarily by a program.         
     Once the program has stopped or craqshed, they are no longer needed.     
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
      &nbsp ;  0  I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\sv207.tmp
         0  I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\svlc.tmp
     8,192  I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\svlc.tmp\sv113.tmp
         0  I:\WINDOWS\msdownld.tmp
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\temp\ZLT031e2.TMP
     4,096  I:\WINDOWS\temp\ZLT076fd.TMP
     4,096   I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\Local Settings\Temp\

____________
      20,480   Total for files named *.tmp
02/19/07                            Files named ntuser.dat                            
   NTUser.dat is a piece of the registry that has been placed in the user's   
   area.  The only known purpose for putting pieces of the registry would be  
  to avoid programming bugs with different users updating a single registry.  
                                                                              
  There are many disadvantages with keeping a piece here and a piece there.   
                                                                              
    All the world's other multi user databases manage simultaneous update.    
           I guess the MS designers got confused.  It was too hard.           
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 
   524,288  I:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT
   225,280  I:\Documents and Settings\Default User\NTUSER.DAT
   262,144  I:\Documents and Settings\Default User.WINDOWS\NTUSER.DAT
 2,359,296  I:\Documents and Settings\Grendel\NTUSER.DAT
   262,144  I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\NTUSER.DAT
   229,376  I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY\NTUSER.DAT
   229,376  I:\Documents and Settings\LocalService.NT AUTHORITY.000\NTUSER.DAT
   262,144  I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\NTUSER.DAT
   229,376  I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY\NTUSER.DAT
   229,376  I:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService.NT AUTHORITY.000\NTUSER.DAT
   262,144  I:\WINDOWS\repair\ntuser.dat
____________
   5,074,944   Total for files named *ntuser.dat

                               -- Final Total --                              
 
 
      186.79 M total cluster space used by files that are mostly
 
                                   Detritus                                  
 

 

Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 February 2007 )
 




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